Free Republic

Almost 6 in 10 Americans who identify as Republican do not trust the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to provide reliable information on H5N1 bird flu, according to a new poll from health care nonprofit KFF. The CDC has confirmed 70 cases of the virus in humans since 2022, with one person dying from a severe form of the disease in January. Officials say the virus’s health risk to most people remains low, but public health researchers are concerned about the virus and its mutations About 6 in 10 adults regardless of political affiliation said they trust the...

The kids were in for quite a shock when they went out for recess at Our Lady Immaculate School in north Dublin and they were met with a severed human hand on the playground. The police were called and immediately cordoned off the area to investigate. I wasn't able to find it, which is quite a shame, but security footage showed that the hand was left on the playground by a bird. However, police do have an idea of whose hand it was. A twelve-year-old boy in the area recently lost his hand playing with a homemade gasoline bomb. The...

As avian flu drives egg prices to record levels and increasingly poses a risk to humans, moves by the White House to cut spending and restrict communications have hobbled public health officials’ response, with the new administration yet to outline a clear strategy on how it plans to stem the spread of the virus. Widespread funding cuts across the government and new restrictions on funding for National Institutes of Health grants have also created uncertainty among infectious disease researchers and local health officials, who are unsure about what resources they will have to work with going forward. Meanwhile, cuts to...

New York officials are taking precautions against the avian flu after seven cases were detected at live bird markets in New York City. The markets were ordered on Friday to shut down for about one week to combat the illness, the Associated Press (AP) reported on Friday. “The order came after seven cases of bird flu were found in poultry during routine inspections of live bird markets in the New York City boroughs of the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens,” the outlet said, noting that officials said there have been no cases of the avian flu among New Yorkers. In an...

People across America are feeling the sting of the rising cost of eggs in part being driven by the bird flu outbreak. In October, Vice President-elect Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) pointed to the skyrocketing price of eggs as evidence of President Joe Biden (D) and Vice President Kamala Harris’s (D) economic policies, per Breitbart News. “Eggs, when Kamala Harris took office, were short of $1.50 a dozen. Now, a dozen eggs will cost you around $4, thanks to Kamala Harris’ inflationary policies,” he said.

Finland has broken new ground as the inaugural nation to commence bird flu vaccinations for human beings, as divulged by health officials this Tuesday.The forward-thinking Nordic nation will make preemptive bird flu vaccines available from next week to specific workers who are exposed to animals. Finland secured vaccines for 10,000 individuals, with each person receiving two doses. This purchase forms part of an expansive EU procurement of up to 40 million doses shared amongst 15 countries.CSL Seqirus, the Australian vaccine manufacturer behind these doses, confirmed to Reuters that Finland holds the honour of being the first nation to implement this...

A farmworker in Michigan is the second person to become infected with the current H5N1 bird flu virus. The farmworker had mild symptoms and has since recovered, local health officials said. According to Michigan’s chief medical executive, Natasha Bagdasarian, the current health risk to the public remains low, but the virus has circulated in dairy and poultry farms across the country this spring. Here’s what we know about the bird flu infections.

Mainstream media has been covering bird flu incessantly for weeks. It has been compared to COVID-19 and even the Bubonic plague with talking head “doctors” practically declaring it to be the next pandemic. Whether their concern is real or part of an election year operation is debatable, but what has become crystal clear is that Americans are viewing the sudden bird flu attention from government agencies as a reason to stock up on long-term storage beef. “The beef industry is undeniably under attack,” said JD Rucker, CEO of Prepper All-Naturals. “Whatever risk, if any, that bird flu poses to cattle...

President Biden said Friday that he had stayed up until at least 2 a.m. watching Fox News analysis of his State of the Union speech to Congress — before saying he was disappointed seeing vulgar protest signs and children making obscene gestures at him when he travels. “I was watching on television last night, about two in the morning, after we got back to the house,” Biden said at a Philadelphia-area campaign rally, his first public address since his annual congressional appearance. “I had the TV on and there was a Fox News commentator saying, ‘You know, Biden is changing...

Is she a bird whisperer? When an unexpected 'visitor' wreaked havoc in a house late at night, one maid went beyond the call of duty to save the day. A video shared by TikTok user Pakalupap1t00 on Thursday (Feb 15) showed his family ducking for cover as a bird flew around their flat. While his dad "hid inside a room" and his mother, sister and brother screamed in fear, their domestic helper appeared to be unfazed. "It's just a bird," she quipped as she tried to catch the bird. After 'exploring' various areas of the flat, the bird took a...

The US government is spending $1million of American taxpayer money to fund gain-of-function experiments on dangerous bird flu viruses in collaboration with Chinese scientists. The research involves infecting ducks and geese with different strains to make them more transmissible and infectious, and study the viruses' potential to 'jump into mammalian hosts,' according to the research documents. It is being funded through the US Department of Agriculture and will take place at sites in Georgia, Beijing and Edinburgh in Scotland. It comes despite such research being restricted in 2022 and growing concerns that dubious Chinese research may have started the Covid...

Bird, once valued at $2.5 billion by investors, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Florida federal court Wednesday. In a release, Bird said it will use the bankruptcy proceeding to facilitate a sale of its assets, which it expects to complete within the next 90 to 120 days. Bird’s electric scooters are touted as an environmentally friendly alternative to driving and other forms of public transit. ... Bird’s bankruptcy proceedings come after the New York Stock Exchange delisted the company in September. Bird failed to comply with the exchange’s requirements after it was unable to keep its market capitalization...

The endangered southern cassowary, a giant flightless bird native to Australia and New Guinea, was spotted by onlookers on Oct. 31 along the shores of Bingil Bay in the Australian state of Queensland, according to the local government. Beachgoers in Australia last month initially thought it was a turtle or a shark’s dorsal fin in the ocean. But upon closer inspection, they were stunned to see a cassowary – sometimes dubbed "the world’s most dangerous bird" – emerge from the ocean and shake itself off. The endangered southern cassowary, a giant flightless bird native to Australia and New Guinea, was...

The struggle to prove the majestic bird still exists has obsessed believers and exasperated doubters for a century. Now photographer Bobby Harrison is racing to document the species once and for all before the government declares it extinct The bird has many names, often divinely inspired: the Lord God Bird, the Lazarus Bird, the Ghost Bird, the Grail Bird. Bobby Harrison is a religious man, but he doesn’t like any of them. He prefers to call it what it is: an ivory-billed woodpecker. “Well,” he says with a shrug, “it is just a bird, after all.” That might seem like...

That rapidly growing wind power development kills birds in ever increasing numbers is clear. That it also kills whales and other marine mammals is becoming clear. So the policy question is how much killing is enough, before we stop killing more? This question seems not to be asked. The stampede to build huge amounts of wind power, on land and at sea, is potentially devastating to a great many species. Our focus has been on the growing threat to whales and other marine mammals from offshore industrial wind. But this is just part of a much deeper pattern of runaway...

Following massive progress on the Woolly Mammoth and Tasmanian tiger, Colossal launches Avian Genomics Group to continue groundbreaking de-extinction pursuits Dr. Beth Shapiro, Ph.D. (Lead Paleogeneticist and Colossal Scientific Advisory Board Member) and Ben Lamm (Colossal Co-Founder and CEO). Image courtesy of Colossal Biosciences. ********************************************************** DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Colossal Biosciences, the world’s first de-extinction company, has today announced an oversubscribed $150M Series B financing led by United States Innovative Technology Fund (“USIT”), with participation from Breyer Capital, WestRiver Group, Bob Nelsen, Animal Capital, Victor Vescovo, In-Q-Tel, Animoca Brands, Peak 6, BOLD Capital, and Jazz Ventures, among others. Since launching in September 2021,...

A highly infectious and deadly strain of avian influenza virus has infected tens of millions of poultry birds across Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. But scientists are particularly concerned about the unprecedented spread in wild birds — outbreaks pose a significant risk to vulnerable species, are hard to contain and increase the opportunity for the virus to spill over into people. Since October, the H5N1 strain has caused nearly 3,000 outbreaks in poultry in dozens of countries. More than 77 million birds have been culled to curb the spread of the virus, which almost always causes severe disease or...

A Pennsylvania family's pet cockatiel was identified after three years on the loose thanks to the bird's love for a classic TV theme song. Louise Duncan said she knew the bird she found on the front porch of Christ United Methodist Church in Lancaster County was not a native species. "I knew it was not a normal bird that comes by because it had an orange or yellow plume," Duncan told WGAL-TV. Duncan and Pastor Roseann Goldberg-Taylor wrangled the bird into a box and contacted local animal rescue group ORCA. ORCA posted photos of the bird on Facebook, and soon...

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday received an unwelcomed surprise in Iowa when a bird appeared to poop on his suit as he delivered his speech on inflation and the state of the American economy. According to a viral video on social media, Mr Biden was unveiling plans to trim gas prices and “putting rural America at the centre of our efforts to build a future that's made in America” when a white substance fell on his jacket - right above his American flag pin. “It's about being made in America,” the US President said moments prior to the poop...

WATCH: Bird poops on Joe Biden during speech.